


Lipstick

by misbehavingvigilante



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 02 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 12:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14402280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: Cat Noir is supposed to be as cool as a cat, but here he is instead floundering like fish in front of his one true love on these Parisian rooftops.





	Lipstick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KarasuNei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarasuNei/gifts).



> A birthday fic for my lovely friend [Nei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarasuNei/pseuds/KarasuNei)~
> 
> We both really like this series and I had wanted to write for a new fandom, thus it was a perfect fit! It's defintely got some of my favorite tropes it such as a domino mask totally conceals my identity, and what do you mean I'm in love with the same person twice? 
> 
> Also like one of the first stills I saw of this show was Cat Noir with black lipstick, imagine my disappointment when that wasn't something he wore regularly and instead was one off thing. That was really the bulk of the inspiration for this fic.
> 
> I tried my best and I had a fun time with this fic so enjoy? I know the tenses are a little all over the place but at this point, I really don't feel it's worth the effort to go back and edit them. Let me know if I need to add any additional tags.

He wears enough black as it is as Cat Noir, captivating and stylish as always, it doesn’t really need to be paired with a touch of black lipstick. A side effect of his upbringing far too close to fashion that he isn’t immediately second guessing his outfits and how the public might perceive him.

There’s a dash of rebellion in the choice as all the times he’s modelled for his father’s company, almost any and all makeup he’d worn had been subtle, meant to accentuate his already there features into a flawless finish product rather than hint at its use at all. It’s not a choice Adrien could make without repercussions, he couldn’t dare ruin an expensive photoshoot by doing his own makeup like this. Not that there even is much makeup he could apply as Cat Noir with everything really covered up but the tip of his nose and his lips.

But it pairs well with his eyes, especially like this wherein the green is more intense and the lipstick looks more like it completes the overall look rather than detracted from it. Briefly, Cat Noir wonders if he could do this long term, but shoots it down peppered by the fact Paris couldn’t wait while he painted his lips since even seconds could count when it came to citizen lives.

Oh well, maybe just for special occasions, then?

Like today, he grins ever the picture of the Cheshire cat as he vibrates excitedly at the thought of seeing Ladybug. The buildup and the fallout from Prime Queen had certainly been quite revealing. Whoever would have thought have thought he and Ladybug had actually locked lips before? Granted being brainwashed and that being Ladybug’s only recourse to save him had taken quite a bit of glee out of it, a little spark of hope still remained in his heart.

She had been willingly to kiss him to save him! That had to mean something, right? At the very least, it meant Ladybug cared for him and didn’t view him as an overly annoying pest to be swatted like a cat would a bug.

Wait, he was the cat, and she was the bug… how silly of him to get it confused.

Cat Noir shook his head vigorously to try to get back on topic, the gesture so violent his ears moved sympathetically as he tried to get back on task. Enough dawdling he had to go meet his favorite bug.

Bouncing rooftop to rooftop towards his destination, a favored meet up of theirs previously designated during a rare moment of free time when there had been no Akumas to defeat. It helped having a moment where they could just take a moment to breathe and discuss future strategies.

Though Cat Noir had always thought of the Parisian rooftops as theirs to begin with, he could see the appeal in one specific place. Or even many, as for rabid fans could be quite vigilant and scope out familiar haunts if they were too singular with their visits.

He landed silently and with a lot of grace if he did say so himself though Ladybug hadn’t seen it. His frown and eventual comment turned into a choking sound instead when he took in the sight ahead of him. Ladybug sitting on the edge of a rooftop having overlooked the nearby river, her legs dangling off carefree as she hummed a tune absentmindedly, the moon full in its splendor made her look especially radiant even if he couldn’t see her face. 

He was so, so gone for this girl, and she didn’t seem to have a clue in the world.

“Hairball?” She offered, amusement clear in her tone as she turned her face towards him, a blinding smile all towards him yet only for a moment, as then Ladybug’s eyes went widen. “You haven’t seen any Akumas around, have you?”

The moment was gone as she rose to her feet in an instant, looking far more graceful in that one action than he ever could hope to achieve however, her body posture was alert and tense and instinctively his copied that. Too synced to Ladybug’s senses had saved him from several threats he hadn’t otherwise seen before however it sent Cat Noir’s thoughts race once more but for entirely different reasons this time. What had set her off?

“Uh, no? There haven’t been any alerts and I covered a fair bit of the skyline before I came to meet you, my lady.”

The nickname did little to reassure her although it set her sights, those beautiful bluebell eyes onto him rather than scouring the area for threats, he’d never not feel at least a little grateful, if not a little overwhelmed for any modicum of attention from her like a touch starved kitten.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m feline fine.” Cat Noir grins, a signature smile and a signature pun to boot should have Ladybug up to her good old familiar exasperated tone or an eye roll, or if he was lucky and she was in an indulgent mood maybe she would gift him with a nickname back if he could just break this ice, first.

But naturally because this is his life, and he is unlucky if nothing else, it doesn’t work.

Ladybug narrows her eyes, and her nose scrunches up. And yeah, he knows that look, that’s one of her famed incredulous looks. He knows it well given all the times he’s seen it from the side when she uses it on someone else, a favorite of his because Ladybug is so expressive without even having to speak a single word. And least, when it’s directed towards him, usually after a failed attempt of sweeping her off her feet when she just doubts every last word he’s saying as if he’s incapable of being sincere. That sharp barb doesn’t put him in a good headspace, but he keeps on his false bravado.

Cat Noir is supposed to be as cool as a cat, but here he is instead floundering like fish in front of his one true love on these Parisian rooftops. The romantic setting all around him smacks of cruelty, that even here he is not granted even an ounce of luck in the love department.

He holds back a sigh, not quite knowing what words to say that everything is fine and nothing is wrong, at least nothing he knows about at least. Cat Noir fidgets nervously with his baton, something Ladybug knows he does on occasion so something less likely to illicit a worsening response.

There’s something calming about the weight of his trusty baton in his hands, for all the scrapes he’s gotten out of from it, from merely its sheer versatility in helping him navigate distances, it’s become a comfort object.

That and the idea he could always ‘accidentally’ smack the back of his head hard enough that he’d wake up back in his bed, and find out this was all a nightmare instead. But then he’d be back in his cold, cold home with such a distant, difficult father sometimes Adrien honestly wondered if he was even wanted. Maybe his father just kept him around because he looked like mother, that he was something, no matter how disappointing, how inadequate he couldn’t get rid of because it reminded him of her.

That was why he had looked forward to his time with Ladybug so much. She had such a warm, welcoming presence it was catnip to a cat like him. How her beautiful bluebell eyes brighten from the thrill of successful Akuma hunt or when she succeeded in pulling off yet another of her masterful plans. How when she laughed, it was such a lyrical and soothing sound, he hoped to listen to it the rest of his life. Or that smile, so dazzling, and that it could blind an entire room with its intensity-

“Cat Noir?”

That voice like always draws him out of his thoughts, and squares his attention back on Ladybug immediately. It is disorientating to go from going on about his favorite things about Ladybug to seeing her concerned face swimming in his vision as reality comes back to him with about as much subtlety as the earth opening up to swallow him whole and save him from this embarrassment.

Cat Noir makes another choked noise, one very much akin to a dying cat. Dying from embarrassment was not the death he had envisioned for himself, as a teenager, he really should have such morbid thoughts to begin with. But what could he say? He led a dangerous life, so naturally he had to confront the remote but very real chance of death on the table.

“Sorry. Um, cat had my tongue?” Wait, that didn’t make sense. How could a cat have his tongue when he was a cat? God, he was making such a fool of himself.

Ladybug frowned. “What’s going on?” She asked sympathetically, coaxing even often the tone she used on frightened little kids but in that moment Cat Noir didn’t look the part of the bold and cocky character that she usually knew him for. With drooping cat ears to signal his low mood and a pathetic excuse for a smirk on his face.

“I just… I didn’t really remember what happened with Dark Cupid.” He confessed, maybe it was just best to let the cat out of the bag? Ladybug stilled a bit from that mention which had been the reason he avoided bringing it up. He’d known she didn’t really want to talk about it. But here there were. “But then, I figured out that kiss happen during then so I probably said some bad things to you. Things in which whatever I said, I wanted you to know if you had any doubt that I didn’t mean them at all.”

It had required a masked visit to Chloé to uncover the truth, who had firsthand seen the effects of what the sudden black lipstick had caused people to say and do. Though, she hadn’t really been witness to what he said or did to Ladybug, to his relief and horror, his imagination had filled the blanks and that had been haunting him since the Prime Queen fiasco. At first, he had tried to ignore the gnawing want because of Ladybug’s behavior thereafter, wanting to respect his privacy but after that failed tv spotlight, his curiosity had gotten the better of him.  

“I know it wasn’t you.” Ladybug hated to interrupt in a rare moment of Cat Noir’s sincerity, but she couldn’t let him harbor such a false illusion. “It may have hurt, but that wasn’t you. I know you wouldn’t try to hurt me. But that doesn’t explain the black lipstick.”

That still puzzled her, if anything Cat Noir should have known better than to play with it and make her relieve those associations.

In lieu of yet another sigh, Cat Noir pressed on. “I know your miraculous is really, really powerful but it doesn’t erase memories. I thought if I wore black lipstick again, if I could fix that but now I see it was a mistake.”  

Ladybug arched an eyebrow, needing a moment to wrap her head around that flawed logic. “That was a sweet idea.” She reassured, careful not to sink Cat Noir back into his earlier despair, however she had to critique his method, or he wouldn’t learn. “It would have been better if you told me about it before rather than surprise me. That made me think there was something wrong and then your behavior thereafter didn’t really help my suspicions vanish.”

“Ah.” The realization dawned on Cat Noir in that moment, that once again he had been a bit too impulsive in his execution of a plan. Whereas Ladybug’s plans could get very elaborate and that be her undoing, his had always been a lack of impulse control. “The lipstick was named black cat and it just sort of spiraled from there?”

Ladybug nodded thoughtfully, that had been a prime target for a cat related pun involving string but Cat Noir hadn’t took it. A clear sign he wasn’t back to feeling fully like himself.

“Well, you would look silly without a spot of black on you.”

Cat Noir blinked, his ears catching onto the pun before his mind could really process it. When it did, a long string of laughter erupted from his chest, releasing all the bad emotions and thoughts that had been making him feel miserable and letting him feel lighter instead. “You should really make more puns. Come on, how could you say no to such a precious kitty?”

“Mine aren’t going to be nearly as on the nose as yours.” Ladybug takes a step closer to Cat Noir, sharing a close proximity with him now rather than the friendly distance they shared before. She boops his nose, gifting her a rather bewildered look from Cat Noir as she grins.

She didn’t indulge Cat Noir incessantly, knowing he would become spoiled from such attention, but even she couldn’t say no to him every time. Particularly when he needed some cheering up.

Cat Noir fondly brushes a gloved hand to his nose, it’s a good thing his mask covers most of his cheeks so Ladybug can’t see his blushing face. “Thanks, bugaboo.”

“Anytime, kitty.”


End file.
